If Erza Had Died
by VoiceInTheDarkness
Summary: Erza didn't survive the Tower of Heaven incident. Un-creative title and description are un-creative. A story I started a year or more ago and never got around to continuing.


Chaptor 1 Episode 41

The day of Erza's funeral was overcast and foggy. The kind of day that perfectly matched the emotions of the people gathering to mourn the scarlet knight. Master had put it off as long as he could-perhaps because he didn't want to face the truth, but it had begun drizzling and the skies promised more to come. He could delay no longer.

He took a deep breath before he looked up at the statue that served as her tombstone-they'd gone all out to honor the S Class wizard. It was supposed to make the grieve less knowing that she'd be remembered for years to come as an honorable hero. It didn't seem enough.

"Erza Scarlet." He began finally. "In God's grace; God fearing' her heart was as wide as the eternal sky. Her sword shined nobly for her loved ones…" Mackarove trailed off for a moment, overcome with memories of the people she'd saved. "Her figure a dancing, fluttering fairy. Her beauty was a match for nature itself." The rain had picked up it's pace, already. No one had an umbrella, but no one seemed to care. "Love makes us stronger, and it is love that makes us weak as well…" Master struggled to continue speaking for a moment. Anger washed through him briefly. This was a funeral he should not have lived to see. "I…" He couldn't speak over the lump in his throat, but he owed it to Erza to finish her final farewell. "She was like a daughter to me." Mackarove sniffed, unable to think of what else could be said.

"The council has decided to award one of the two empty seats to her in perpetuity." A delegate from the magic council informed the mourners solemnly. "And names Erza Scarlet one of the 10 Wizard Saints." If the council members had been expecting applause they thought wrongly. What they got instead were glaring eyes. Eyes that demanded to know how they had not seen the power of Titannia until her death. Eyes that asked if they thought giving Erza a fancy title would possibly replace their loss.

Perhaps the guild was waiting for the Council to take the blame for Erza's death. They had after all been infiltrated by Jellal. However the council stood by their decision, after all it had seemed the only option they'd had. And really, what difference would it have made? Erza Scarlet was dead. There was no changing that.

They may have stared at each other forever if it had not been for the interruption.

"Screw this!" A very angry voice yelled.

Lucy and Grey, the two who knew best what was coming, turned to see the pink haired Dragon Slayer stalking forward.

"What the hell is everyone doing?" Natsu demanded, as he kicked the bouquet of flowers off Erzas grave.

"Stop this Natsu!" Master Mackarov ordered. Today of all days he needn't make a fool of himself in front of the magic council.

"Natsu, stop." Lucy pleaded, as she had every day since the Etherion beam had been fired.

Grey however, had stopped pleading long ago. "Why you!" Grey yelled running forward.

"Erza ain't dead!" Natsu insisted, as he had been for the last 3 weeks.

Lucy clutched her face with her hands, overcome with emotions she was too tired to recognize. "Please, Natsu… Stop." Begging wouldn't work. If begging was going to work it would have by now. But surely, surely even _Natsu_ had to realize the truth.

"There's no way in hell she's dead!" He roared. Grey, Wakaba and Macao tackled Natsu to the ground, desperate to keep him from desecrating Erza's final resting place. Even if her body wasn't there.

"Face reality, Natsu!" Lucy yelled. They'd searched and searched and searched for a sign, any sign, of Erza. They hadn't found anything, not even a scrap of clothing, or a strand of her crimson colored hair.

"Lemme go! Erza's alive!" Natsu continued to yell, thrashing against his restrainers until a few kindhearted council members knocked him out.

Lucy cried in Grays arms, something she would not have been able to do if Juvia had attended. She'd been invited of course. She'd helped them search, probably done more searching than anyone other than Natsu really, but she'd insisted that it was not her place to intrude on. She hadn't even known Erza after all.

It was like this-amongst the tears of rain soaked guild members-that Erza's funeral came to a close.

The next day the guild members finally realized something that would have been extremely obvious had they not been so distracted by their grief. Juvia had not joined Fairy Tail alone. She'd asked to join as soon as they'd arrived of course, even though she knew it was terrible timing. But the Master had been very understanding. And everyone at the guild had been nothing but kind to her-or at least as kind as grief stricken people could be. No it was not a problem that Juvia joined. The problem was-

"GAJEEL!" Natsu bellowed in outrage.

It was that she had brought a fellow former Phantom Tail member with her.

Gajeel only snorted, continuing to sit and stare at the wall.

"Master! Juvia is one thing, she helped us out at….." Grey couldn't make himself say the name, but everyone felt the pang of grief as sharply as though he'd yelled it. "But Gajeel is the one who destroyed our guild!"

"Well, they say yesterday's enemy is tomorrows friend." Master consoled Grey.

"I d-don't mind. N-not at all." Levy stuttered hiding behind a table near where Lucy was standing, Jet and Droy standing sentry in front of her. _Yes perfectly allright with it…_ Lucy thought. Although it wasn't like Levy didn't have good reason to want to hide from Gajeel. He had personally attacked her after all.

"You expect me to go on jobs with this guy?!" Natsu questioned. Gajeel started to reply but Natsu cut him off. "You think these Phantom Lord maniacs can replace Erza?" Natsu asked in a cold tone.

"Th-that's not what Juvia was trying to do at all!" Juvia protested.

"Natsu! No Master would never try and replace Erza!" Gray yelled in defense of Juvia.

"That's right because he doesn't NEED to!" Natsu yelled, Gajeel already forgotten.

"Natsu! How long are you going to deny the truth? Erza is DEAD!" Gray yelled, grabbing Natsu's collar to force him to look him in the eyes.

"You should listen to your friend Salamander. Titannia wasn't so strong, there's no way she's alive." Gajeel laughed-in truth he couldn't care less what Natsu did and did not believe. He did however care about being suddenly forgotten. That was not cool.

"Why you-" Natsu and Gray unisoned before turning on Gajeel.

"N-now now!" Juvia cried desperately trying to quiet the situation.

"Master! Shouldn't you do something?" Lucy whisper hissed.

"And get between those three? I don't think so." He'd just cause more damage. Better to let them tire themselves out. Maybe this would quiet the problems with Gajeel down too. Although he didn't really want to see the guild he'd just finished repairing be destroyed…

By now it was an all out brawl that Juvia was desperately trying to stop-but more often than not she was just acting as Greys personal shield, and trying to nullify as many of the attacks as possible. Which meant that instead of holes in the building, there was now a lot of water. Which meant they would probably need to replace the floor…

"Hahahahahahahaha! OH that's rich!" a loud voice coming from outside stalled the fighting. Everyone turned to the guild doors. In marched Laxus and the Thunder Legion, Laxus laughing hysterically. "I come back and see that Erza's bitten it! Best welcome back gift EVER!" When Laxus finally caught his breath, he noticed that the guild was now completely sodden, and irritation quickly replaced amusement. "Tch. This guild just goes downhill every day." He mumbled under his breath as he stromed out of the guild.

"LAXUS YOU~" Natsu yelled running after him. There was a flash of light and the sound of an explosion.

"Give up, you pieces of trash will never be able to reach me!" Laxus confident voice drifted back to the guild, leaving everyone in silence.

Suddenly the lights in the guild turned off, and everyone turned expectantly toward the stage. The curtains drew back to reveal Mirajane sitting on a stool, holding a guitar. "I'd like to dedicate my song tonight to Erza." Mira said quietly.

Even Natsu lowered his gaze at Mira's voice, after all she had been arguably the closest to Erza. Loosing Erza probably reminded her of losing Lisanna. Their deaths were uncannily similar; they had both been with powerful companions, they had both died protecting someone they cared about, and both graves were empty.

Juvia hadn't known Erza very well, but she had admired the mage for her strength-both mentally and physically. She had believed they could be friends. She couldn't help but feel guilty. If only she had fought harder, searched harder, done … something! As Mirajane's beautiful, heartbreaking voice rang out through the guild Juvia quietly slipped away to cry in an empty part of the guild.

Lucy noticed her slinking away and quietly followed her. When she saw that Juvia was crying she slid down beside her. "You know Natsu didn't mean what he said. No one thinks you're trying to replace Erza." She wasn't sure if this was the best thing to say to the water mage or not, but she couldn't think of anything better.

Juvia shook her head. "That's not what bothers me. I just feel… responsible somehow."

"Stop that." Lucy said harshly.

Juvia looked at the celestial mage in shock, and was even more surprised when she saw that Lucy was crying too. She opened her mouth to say something but Lucy plowed on.

"There was nothing we could have done. Saying that we could have done more to prevent her death would be an insult to Erza. There was nothing more that we could have done." Lucy's voice was fierce, but Juvia could tell from the look on her face that she was trying to convince herself as much as she was Juvia. Juvia smiled hesitantly, and after a moment Lucy smiled back. As they both wiped away their tears Lucy said, "Now let's go and listen Mira's song, OK?" Juvia nodded feeling friendship bud between the two of them.

They joined Natsu and Gray, who glanced questioningly at the two of them but only shrugged when Lucy waved her hand at him, indicating that it was nothing important. Everyone broke into applause when Mirajane's song finished. Then the lights dimmed again and everyone waited in anticipation to see who would be next.

When the spotlights turned back to the stage it was Gajeel who was sitting on the stool. For a minute everyone was so shocked that they couldn't say anything.

"This is a little diddy I wrote called 'Best Friend.' Give it a listen." He said in introduction. Lucy turned in exasperation to Juvia, whose face had gone entirely white.

As yells of "Like Hell we'll listen!" "Get the heck off the stage!" and "Where did you even get such a fancy suit?!" (and it certainly was a nice suit-especially for Gajeel) rang through the guild Gajeel began singing his 'song.'

Colorful, colorful, shoo-bee-doo-ba!

Shiver with love

Iron colored and metallic!"

Lucy turned to look at Juvia again, who had her hands clenched near her mouth, which was bent upwards in a smile, and she quietly whispered "Way to go, Gajeel." Lucy almost burst out laughing at the difference between her personal reaction and Elfman's (Hey! This song is pretty good! Gajeel's a man after all!) but quickly lost amusement when she had to duck to avoid getting showered with beer that someone had tried to throw at Gajeel, who seemed to be impervious to the many things being hurled at him.

Too-too-too she-la-la-la!

Shoo-bee-doo-ba!

She-la-la!

Take a bite and sweet nectar will come out-

Natsu had about had it at this point however. "This is the worst song I've ever heard!" He roared, louder than any of the other complainers. He was rewarded with an iron guitar smashing into his face. Natsu angrily threw the guitar away-Lucy screamed and hopped out of the way just in time to avoid becoming the newest victim of the guitar as it smashed into the floor between her and Juvia. "You want a piece of me!" Natsu yelled challengeingly to Gajeel.

"Shoo-bee-doo-ba!" Was Gajeel's only reply, and the two quickly began brawling and the stage. Within minutes the entire guild was involved.

Lucy and Juvia had taken refuge with Mira, hiding behind the bar. "It's good to see that Gajeel's making friends already." Mirajane said with a smile, Juvia nodding enthusiastically.

"Hey, you've gotta be kidding me." Lucy muttered, as another unconscious guild member smashed into the bar.

* * *

AN: I would just like to say that this was written well before I understood Laxus better, so he's horribly written, and that I'm fully aware. I decided not to change anything-other than the spelling errors I caught-because I like to see how much my writing has improved.

I'm not sure if I should continue this or not, so let me know if anyone wants to see more of this. Anyway, enjoy if you feel so inclined.


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